Rosemary Mucklow, Charter Member of the MEAT INDUSTRY HALL OF FAME®

Rosemary Mucklow, recently inducted as one of the charter members of the MEAT INDUSTRY HALL OF FAME during a special ceremony in Chicago, is one of the meat industry’s most prominent leaders and a vigorous advocate for the interests of the nation’s meat and poultry packers and processors, both large and small.

From 1982 until 2007, she served as the Executive Director of the National Meat Association, an association representing meatpackers, processors, wholesalers, sausage makers and related companies. During that time, she has been tirelessly engaged on a variety of critical issues, such as HACCP implementation, inspection reform and food-safety initiatives.

Mucklow was born and schooled in Edinburgh, Scotland, survived the Nazi bombing in wartime London and later earned a Bachelor’s degree in accounting from Golden Gate University in San Francisco. She currently resides in Berkeley, Calif., and remains active in providing support and counsel for NMA member companies.

AWARDS/SERVICE

In 1996, Mucklow received the E. Floyd Forbes award presented by NMA in recognition of her lengthy and outstanding service to the meat industry. The award is named for the first president of the Western States Meat Packers Association, the predecessor group of the National Meat Association.

In 2008, she received the Richard E. Lyng Award from the American Meat Institute in recognition of her long and continued commitment and dedication to the meat industry. The award, presented by AMI President and CEO Patrick Boyle, is named after the late Richard E. Lyng, former AMI President and Secretary of Agriculture under President Ronald Reagan and like Mucklow, a Member of the Meat Industry Hall of Fame.

Most recently, Mucklow received a unique recognition for her lifelong contributions to the industry when Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo named its state-of-the-art conference room in the new J. and G. Lau Family Meat Processing Center the Rosemary Mucklow Conference Room. In its citation, the university noted that, “For over four decades, Rosemary has served as an excellent example of professionalism for our students, having modeled the highest level of integrity and industry advocacy.”

In a less-lauded but no less important commitment that has extended over many years, Mucklow has provided financial and emotional support for underprivileged families in the Oakland area, an extension of her lifelong professional outreach to constituents in the industry and policymakers at the state and federal levels. All those who interacted with Rosemary Mucklow came away the better for experiencing her passion, insight and commonsense wisdom, all directed toward making the business of meat and poultry processing a better, safer and more successful industry.

Accepting the MEAT INDUSTRY HALL OF FAME honor, she thanked the many men and women who influenced her during her five decades in the business. From the podium she showed the audience a document containing a lengthy list of industry giants that could serve as a roster of future Hall of Fame inductees. Leaving copies behind, she described it as a randomly recalled list of people over the age of 50.

ABOUT THE MEAT INDUSTRY HALL OF FAME

Meat and poultry production has been a primary component of the nation’s agricultural productivity—a bedrock of our security and economic might. Meat and poultry processing has responsible for industry growth that has provided many communities with robust economic activity, millions of jobs and a legacy of accomplishment and progress.

Overall, the meat industry—from ranchers and farmers who settled the frontier to packers and processors whose growth paralleled that of America’s cities—is integral to American history.

The MEAT INDUSTRY HALL OF FAME® was created to be a repository of that history and a shrine to the leaders and legends whose vision, skill and dedication shaped and sustained the meat industry as the leading sector of food production.

The inaugural class of inductees were honored with admission to the MEAT INDUSTRY HALL OF FAME as the Charter Class of 2009 during a Reception and Dinner at the Union League Club of Chicago last October. Keynote speaker was noted newsman and cattleman Bill Kurtis.